History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.10

c12.s6.10

Two important statements in the Bhagavatī Sūtra itself do, however, give a clue to the approximate date of Makkhali Gosāla’s death. These are, firstly, Mahāvīra’s prophecy that he would survive the death of Gosāla by sixteen or sixteen and a half years. This statement was made twice, the first time to Gosāla himself after the magic duel at the Koṭṭhaga caitya,⁶ when the duration of Mahāvīra’s survival of Gosāla is given as sixteen years; and again soon after the death of Gosāla, when Mahāvīra was taken ill at the town of Meṇḍhiyagāma.⁷ Remembering Gosāla’s curse, the disciple Sīha feared that his master would die within six months as a result of the magic duel, but Mahāvīra calmed his fears, and stated that he had yet sixteen and a half years to live on earth as a jina. Mahāvīra quickly recovered, after eating the flesh of a cockerel killed by a cat.